Essex Legend Film

THE owner of a well-loved Leigh restaurant is making steps in her acting career with her latest horror role bringing to life a famous Essex legend.
Samantha Anderson, 43, formally owned The Oak Tree vegan restaurant on Leigh Road, which featured on an episode of Come Dine With Me last April.
Since its closure last year, Ms Anderson has taken the plunge into acting and is starring as the spectral nun in the upcoming film Borley Rectory: The Awakening, based on the “most haunted house in England,” Borley Rectory, in Essex,
Ms Anderson said: “I was always doing shows at the Palace Theatre, I never stopped. But since the Oak Tree sold, my acting career has taken off and there’s nothing holding me back.”
Describing the unique role, she said: “It was an amazing experience! It was a roller coaster of emotions – I think I got to perform them all – except comedy.”
The real-life Borley Rectory came to fame after celebrity ghost hunter and psychic researcher Harry Price brought it into the public eye in the 1930s.
Price was investigating a series of alleged hauntings that dated back to when the rectory was built in 1863.
Whilst the building itself burnt down in 1939, its legend has continued to attract ghost hunters for decades.
The ‘nun’ Ms Anderson plays is a ghostly figure believed to be the French nun, Marie Lairre.
According to legend, she left her convent to marry a member of the Waldegrave family. She was murdered, with some claiming she was bricked up alive in Borley. Her ghost has often been reported, notably by Reverend Henry Dawson Ellis Bull’s family in the 1860s, walking a twilight path near the rectory.
Ms Anderson said: “Normally I play some similar roles, like a mum or something, so the role as the nun was a chance to do something different.”
She added: “It is always great working with Daniel Keeble from our film company, ARK Pictures, who was first Assistant Director.
“Also, working with incredible actors, Julian Glover, Patsy Kensit, Mark Wingett, Helen Lederer and Vicky Michelle, was so exciting. We loved every minute of it.”
The new film, produced by Greenway entertainment and ChampDog Films and directed by Steven M. Smith, is out on October 23 and will premiere at Basildon CineWorld.
Picture: Ms Anderson
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